Hello everyone, I hope you’re well and have had a good week so far. I’m so sorry I haven’t posted Notes for a couple of weeks, it always drops off my radar with the number of schools’ workshops I’m doing this term, alongside meetings and teaching! Either way, I’ll try to do better so you’re always ready for the next rehearsal.
What we did – Thursday 1st February
We’ve been going into some really good detail, working extra hard on not only learning our notes, but finding them in the music and understanding the pieces, to make them easier to sing. Hard work, but it’ll really pay off.
- We started with number 4 in the Bible Songs: Pray That Jerusalem, working on notes, legato lines, and plenty of support for the longer phrases.
- Then we split into sectionals to go through the 3rd movement of of the Songs of the Fleet, working on notes and finding entries.
- After this we firmed up a couple of moments in the 4th and 5th movements, before coming back together to sing some of the 3rd movement and some of the 5th movements.
To Catch Up: If you missed these rehearsals, please go through the 3rd movement of the Songs of the Fleet at home.
What we’ll do – Thursday 8th February
We’ll start with 5 – Praise to the Lord from the Bible Songs, before splitting for sectionals. I’ll work with the Tenors and Basses on movement 3 and 4 of the Songs of the Fleet, and Fiona will look at movement 2 and 6 – Oh for a closer walk with God from the Bible Songs with Sopranos and Altos.
A reminder that there’s no rehearsal on Thursday 15th as it’s half term.
And, as a heads-up: We’ll be running the Songs of the Fleet on Thursday 29th February, so we can see what it feels like to get from one end to the other, and help us understand the structure of the whole piece.
Marked Score
Attached is the marked score of Songs of the Fleet. I ask that you please put in the markings into your parts. Having things like where to breathe already marked in the score will save so much time in rehearsals. Thank you all for your time with this!
Learning Resources
The Spotify playlist HERE contains the whole programme. To get an idea of the music, this is your best place to start.
Alternatively, feel free to search for the pieces on YouTube.
I’ve found two free sources for Learning Guides for Songs of the Fleet, so you can choose which ones will help you most in learning the music:
The first is HERE.
The second is HERE.
I’ve now also created some learning guides for the Bible Songs, to help you practice your notes at home. I’ve had to remove all other parts from them, so it’s a little rudimentary, but hopefully it’ll help at home. You can find them HERE.
Dates for the year
A reminder about dates for the first half of the year:
Spring concert – Saturday 16th March – St Peter and Paul’s, Botley.
Summer ‘small term’ – Thursday rehearsals begin on Thursday 18th April. Come-and-Sing day with informal performance is Saturday 18th May in St Peter and Paul’s, Botley. This’ll be a fun shorter term, building up to a come-and-sing day led by us, where we can invite many people to join us, hopefully recruiting some more members!
Post-it Note Exercise
I’ll be bringing post-it notes to the rehearsal this week… this is your chance to have your voices heard – I want to know what music you’d like to do! If you have ideas for themes, pieces or composers, write them down and I’ll collate them in a list over the half term break! This is the best way for me to find out what music you’d like to sing, and I can use it to put together fun programmes!
Forthcoming Events
This is way in the future but Steve’s asked me to share it with you all now. Do go along, it’s one of the most famous pieces of all time, and a romp from beginning to end to sing!
That’s it for now! See you on the 8th February!
Ben
Cumnor Choral Society 
You must be logged in to post a comment.